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Interrelationship of Folacin, Vitamin B₁₂ and Choline

Effect on Hemorrhagic Kidney Syndrome in the Rat and on Growth of the Chick¹

Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Agricultural Experiment Station of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn

1. The incidence and severity of renal injury in weanling rats fed diets low in choline and methionine were decreased by supplementing the diet with folacin. When both folacin and vitamin B₁₂ were added to the basal diet supplemented with 0.04% choline chloride or 0.128% DL-methionine, there was complete protection against kidney damage.

2. Both folacin and vitamin B₁₂ are required for maximum chick growth. When both are present in the diet, the resulting gain is an additive effect.

3. Under the experimental conditions reported in this paper vitamin B₁₂ could replace folacin for hemoglobin production in chicks; however, slightly higher hemoglobin levels were consistently observed when both nutrients were present in the diet.

4. Both vitamin B₁₂ and folacin in addition to choline are concerned in the prevention of perosis in the chick. A folacin deficiency produced a much higher incidence of perosis than a vitamin B₁₂ deficiency.

5. The folacin requirement of chicks under the experimental conditions reported was 0.2 mg per kilogram of diet or less when the basal diet was supplemented with 150 µg vitamin B₁₂ per kilogram and 0.10% choline chloride. The vitamin B₁₂ requirement was more than 5 µg per kilogram even when an extremely high level of folacin (100 mg per kilogram) was fed.

6. The nutritional requirements of the chick and rat for folacin, vitamin B₁₂ and choline are interrelated, and a specific requirement for one of these nutrients cannot be established unless the level of other two is taken into consideration.

Manuscript received 29 August 1949.

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